Shaun Botterill/Allsport |
HISTORY
 Nearly 5,000 years ago, humans first strapped a pair of bone ski runners with leather thongs on their feet to travel rapidly over snow. A 4,000-year-old Stone Age petroglyph displaying a skier was discovered in Rodoy, Norway. It became the design standard for the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Games pictograms.
10th Century A.D.: Viking soldiers use skiing for transportation, according to Norse mythology.
1892: Norway holds the first Holmenkollen race, considered for many years more prestigious than the International Ski Federation (FIS) sponsored World Championships.
1900: A separate cross-country race debuts at the Holmenkollen.
1924: Cross-country appears at the first Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix, France.
1976: Bill Koch becomes the only American to medal in an Olympic cross-country skiing event, winning silver in the 30-km race at the Innsbruck Games.
1984: The FIS decides not to ban the freestyle technique for the Winter Games in Sarajevo.
1992: Russian Raisa Smetanina wins the last of her 10 Olympic medals, capturing the gold in the 4x5-km relay at the Albertville Games.
1998: At the Nagano Games, Bjorn Daehlie of Norway wins four medals, bringing his overall Olympic total to 12. The most decorated athlete in Winter Olympic history, Daehlie has countrywide fame in Norway.
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